The Japanese company Nintendo has temporarily halted production of its GameCube consoles until the autumn.

The struggling games maker says it needs to clear its warehouses of unsold machines before it makes any more of them. Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, has also said he wants to move away from increasingly sophisticated and time consuming games, which dominate the games industry at the moment. The games market shrunk dramatically last year, Mr Iwata said, because players were getting frustrated with the ever more sophisticated games.

Some games can take months to finish and the result is players are buying fewer of them. "This trend is clear to everyone, and the trend continues this year," Mr Iwata said. So in a bid to recapture sales, Nintendo has said it will move back toproducts that anyone can play and enjoy. Nintendo now hopes to drive sales this year with new games, including a version of the 1980s favourite Donkey Kong, and has promised a product for next spring "that will deliver fresh surprises" and be fun even for novices.